Arizona weekly citizen., 1887-11-26
RUSSIAN NEWSPAPERS.
ONLY 600 JOURNALS PUBLISHED IN THE CARS ENTIRE EMPIRE.
All the Noted Newspapers Conducted by Independent Writers Have Been AbOl- ished-Omeial Satisfactorily Russia Is Almost NewspaPeriess-Warnin

Independent Writers Have Been Abol-
 ished-onieiai statistIes-why Russia Is
 Almost NewspaPerIess-wArnin
 A complete stagnation threatens the Russian press It is not because nOwa- days there are no able writers in Russia. The trouble is that the present minister of the interior. Count D. TolstOi, has sue ceeded in abOlishing all the noted journals conducted by talented and independent writers. The list Of the periodical publi- cations that have been suppressed during the last six years is far more interesting and valuable than all the papers now liv- ing. Now there is no originality about Russian journals, no freshness and none of that domestic stirring interest which in the days gone by used to so much at- tract attention in all parts of the great empire.
 The suspended GolOs CThe Voice) has left fully JO.OOO subscribers without any paper to their taste. for none of them dare to defend the constitutional form of the government as The GOlos did. In the sixties, when the czar-liberator tried to free the press from the iron grip of the censor. Nicholas Tchernyshevsky started The Contemporary Review, a monthly in which he taught the Russian public for the first time tO cOnscientiOusly criticise the government measures. It is impOS- sible in this country even to imagine what a whirlwind Of public opinion he raised as by magic. But even the liber- atOr could not long stand such freedom of discussion, and Tchernys shevsky was sent to Siberia for seven years and kept there for fifteen. But the martyrOlOgy of the Russian editors and writers is too long to be given here.
 The number of periodicals issued in Russia amounts Co a little over GOO. As the population of the cZar's empire is l0j, 900, coo, it Is evident then that it takes 17J,oO Russian subjects to support one periodical whereas in the United States every 4,OOO souls support some publica- ton.
 RUssIA's 400 PERIODICALS
 Putting aside 200 periodicals published in other than the Russian language, the 400 Russian periodicals are classified as follows: Daily, 55; weekly, S5; monthly, s7; several times per week, 70; several times per year, l33. Nearly one-half the Russian periodicals are published in the capital of the empire. St. Petersburg, and third in seven of the largest towns, leaving for the rest of the great empire less than 100 periodicals In the czar's country there are many towns of 10000 2O,OO0, or even 40, GOO inhabitants which have not periodical of any kind. The whole of Siberia, with 4, coo, 0OO of population, has only two newspapers and bi-monthly of c geographical society.
 According tO the official statistics fur nished by the post department last year 4rt fa .r.sII about -, 5O0, 900 copies of Russian peri odicals of all sorts, and 1. 4.5OO, OOO of for eign periodicals were received in Russia. Thus it appears that there is not for each subject of the czar during a year even a single copy of any periodical, Russian or foreign.
 Why is the Russian prezs SO insicnifi- cant as tO its vOlumes Some say it is be- cause fully SO per cent. of the Russians are iliiterate. But .l the educated and schoOled Russians would read newspapers as freely as Americans do, then in Russia | there would be 5000 periodicals instead of | 600. There are other causes that make | the czAr's country almost newspaperless | In the first place, there is no political life | at all, and the industrial life there is | in its embryonic state Russians have | not so much news Co exchange as the | people in other cOuH ries have In the | second place, the autJCratic government systematically and most strenucusly op- | poses the growth Of the press. Cars have | always been aware that writers, even | though in the clutches of eensors and | under political supervision, are apt to | think for themselves. tO argue and to | criticise. Thus they develop in them | selves and in their readers the qualities | most decidedly objectionable in imperial | subjects. Every job printer in Russia must procure police certificate of good | character and fuTni-. bonds, and every | publisher, besides these qualifications, must maintain an imperial inspector at | his own establishment
 In Russia every editor of prominence must pass part of his life in prison. If we add tO that the fatal ministerial warn ings, prohibition of inserting advertise ments, heavy fines and suspension. we shall wonder not that there are so few periodicals, but that among Russians there are men and women ready to enter the Career of journalist, which ranks in danger next to that of conspiratOr.-Mos- COW Letter